Botswana increasing its diamond production

Firestone Diamonds, has said it hopes to fast track the development of mines near Orapa and Tsabong in Botswana, Sunday Standard reported.

The diamondmining company said there has been “significant progress made in the scoping study,” adding that mine development may be advanced from the fourth quarter of 2009 to the first quarter, paving the way for commencement of production in the next two years.

“Our primary focus in the coming months is to complete evaluation work on
BK11 as soon as possible, with the objective of accelerating a mine development decision to early 2009,” Philip Kenny, CEO of Firestone diamonds said in an update.